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Coaches are always telling athletes that the
first thing that goes (weakens) are their legs—and one can’t compete with weak
leg muscles! One of the Backsafe® Rules to protect our backs from injury is to use our “elevator” or leg muscles rather than our backs when lifting....

It is that time of year—again—when
we look back to assess the previous 12 months and to project what will be in
store for us over the next 12 months. I love January because it
demands a conscious choice: do we hit the restart button or just
hit the “keep it rolling” button?...

Recently one of our trainers (Dr. Paula) visited a new customer to conduct our pre-training onsite assessment at a pallet manufacturing company in order to customize the Bionomic Training workshops for this facility. In reviewing the assessment, our Lead Trainer said, so matter-of-factly, “Oh yes, Dr. Paula knows everything about pallet handling. The training is really going to help these employees.”...

Last week I swear I heard an ad on the radio about how a company’s oil changewas life changing! I started laughing because what I hadn’t realized until I heard that, is that “life changing” is the buzz word in marketing today. Life changing diets, teeth whitening, vacations, hair plugs, all are promoting a need to change our lives. What is so bad about the ones we have now? I am not denigrating the value of any of these things, but an oil change? Really?...

Probably every young person has, at one time or another, heard “Well dear, that is just the ‘way of the world’”. This response is a catch-all response for things that are hard to explain; aren’t pleasant; or for things that have been a certain way for a long time for no particular reason....

Pardon the title pun but recently there was yet another article about the dangers of sitting. “Sitting Most of the Day May Lead to an Early Grave” was the headline. This, on the heels of “Sitting is the New Smoking” and other articles about sitting, is creating some major concern for those millions of people that predominantly sit for a living....

Your body has 62,500 miles of blood vessels (amazing fact!). Blood provides oxygen, nutrition and takes away waste. A law of sitting is to prevent closed angles. Your ankles, knees, hips and elbows should be positioned at 90 degrees or slightly more to assist blood flow. Key factors to open angles are the height of your chair and position of your keyboard, mouse and monitor. Do not let your computer and office furniture dictate your body's positions. Adjust your chair so that your knees are slightly below your hips, for most of the day make sure your feet aren't tucked under your chair (closes ankle and knee angles!)...

Our last edition defined CMT (Cumulative Microtrauma) the cause of most physical discomfort attendant to sitting and working on a computer. You may feel CMT on your body as fatigue, discomfort, or pain. The pandemic existence of CMT among office workers around the world affects moods, joint function, production and well-being.
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We’ve all seen them, pedestrians stooped forward over the ubiquitous mobile device…seemingly oblivious to traffic, other pedestrians and potholes. Heck, we might have even been one of “those people” ourselves! Tech Neck sufferers are everywhere!...

Athletes stretch for top performance in their sports. This type of stretching is dynamic, meaning everything moves – the arms, legs, back and head. Athletes doing dynamic stretching move through the different stretches, but don’t hold them for more than a few seconds....

Chances are you’re seated right now, hunched over a keyboard. hunched-over-keyboards.If you’ve spent most or all of your workday in this position, you are a candidate for fatigue and soreness starting at the neck and working down the back. Those are the postural muscles, and you should listen to them....

The new law changes workplace injuries are evaluated... The new system changes the factor determining how much money permanently injured workers receive as compensation for their injuries and will result in some workers who are not severely disabled, and still physically able to earn a living, getting less money for their injuries....

The Worker's Compensation Committees at the National Conference of Insurance Legislators unanimously approved a resolution supporting ergonomics guidelines for nursing homes and encouraging such facilities to use alternative mechanical lifting methods. OSHA suggests that hospitals and similar work environments should find these guidelines useful....

Several years ago an Egyptologist (expert at Egyptian history) presented me with the oldest recordable back claim on record: 2,500 years ago a physician treated an unlucky laborer who had hurt his back. It is a fascinating peek into history and shines light onto the fact that the ubiquitous back injury has maimed and ruined lives well beyond the time any of us have been involved with workplace injuries. Imagine if we could quantify the volume of pain and the amount of money spent on this musculoskeletal plague? Imagine if we could quantify the volume of pain and the amount of money spent on this musculoskeletal plague?...

The amazing thing about this ability to perceive things beyond the physical world is that it's as accurate as our five physical world senses. Some of us, however, are better listeners to this sense than others......

Not only would they continue to use military force against the cartels, but would concurrently launch a nationwide "Values and Morals Program" to educate children and families across Colombia. National Police were trained on how to implement programs based on a universal "code of happy living" to teachers, children and parents....

Health care costs are a primary concern for Risk Managers, HR Directors, families, and individuals across North America. The continued escalation of these costs puts undue stress on workers' comp, health benefits and family finances....

I was recently emailed a picture of what success would look like if drawn as a line. It was not a nice smooth, straight line gradually trending upwards. It was a ball of knots, up and down, sideways, that eventually ended in an uptrend....

Much is written about the "aging workforce" and its various challenges for workers' comp budgets. Like most things in life, the "aging workforce" has its positives and negatives. On the positive side is the vast experience they have gained which is extremely valuable and hard to replace....

The following newsletter is about a topic that caused me a tremendous amount of stress, long work hours, and employees that became all too dependent on me. That is until I learned a simple yet powerful management strategy that changed my life at work and at home....